Craig Newmark

Craig Alexander Newmark (b. December 6, 1952) is an Internet entrepreneur best known as the founder of the San Francisco based group of community websites known as craigslist.

Background
A biographical note states that "Newmark coded an e-mail list as a way to share information with his friends in San Francisco. He launched craigslist as a subscriber-based community in the later part of 1995, with the first community site for San Francisco as craigslist.org. As of August 2008, craigslist has grown to more than 570 city community sites in over 50 countries and is experiencing more than 12 billion page views per month. There are more than 50 million unique community members worldwide."

"craigslist is a platform where people can help one another with basic needs, like housing and jobs. The site has a culture of trust, based on shared values like “treat people like you want to be treated.” craigslist’s philosophy is to let the on-line community participants play an active role in policing the information that is shared on the list, and to make classifieds and personal ads free to its community members," it states.

Newmark attended Morristown High School and attended college at Case Western Reserve University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1975 and completed his Masters of Science in Computer Science in 1977. His thesis was entitled "Fundamental Models of Computer Systems and Their Relationship to Information Security."

"In 1976, Newmark started his business career with IBM and spent nearly 17 years with Big Blue until moving on to working in programming for companies such as IBM, Sun Micro Systems and various consulting firms."

Political views
Newmark's biographical note states that he is "a vocal advocate of net neutrality — principle of fairness, of a level playing field on the Internet, and no more special privileges for the already privileged. Newmark is also a vocal champion of citizen journalism and participatory democracy and is involved with groups that advocate using the Internet to build online communities of global citizens to help solve social issues worldwide. Newmark supports and advises presidential candidate Barack Obama’s team on technology issues."

Board memberships

 * craigslist
 * craigslist foundation
 * Consumers Union
 * Sunlight Foundation
 * Co-Chair, U.S.-Palestinian Partnership

Advisory board memberships

 * Tech Policy Summit
 * NewsTrust
 * OneVoice
 * New Israel Fund
 * FactCheckED.org
 * Center for Public Integrity
 * Red Room writers site (for novelists, etc.)
 * iFOCOS Advisory Board
 * Voto Latino
 * Climate Theater

Formal support/promotion

 * Center for Citizen Media
 * NewAssignment.net
 * Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
 * Yellow Ribbon Fund
 * Donors Choose

Contact Details

 * Newmark's blog: http://www.cnemark.com
 * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craignewmark

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Net neutrality

Biographical notes

 * "Biography", Accessed January 2007.
 * "Craig A Newmark ", cnewmark, accessed November 2008.

Articles by Newmork

 * Craig Newmark, "Community Building on the Web: Implications for Journalism", Nieman Reports, Winter 2006.
 * Craig Newmark, "Newmark: Keep the Internet neutral, fair and free", Special to CNN, October 20, 2006.